Founder of Doughlicious, Kathryn Bricken, mother of 3 and entrepreneur takes Food Editor Talibah Simone around the Doughlicious factory giving the W Online readers a first-hand insight into the Doughlicious HQ and the irresistible ready-to bake cookie dough and premium ice cream wrapped in cookie dough, coated in a soft cookie crumb! Let's take a look at the evolution of Doughlicious!
Doughlicious was founded in 2014 by Kathryn as she enjoyed baking cookie dough for friends and family. Through various dinner parties and gatherings, the reaction to her cookies and cookie dough always took her by surprise, they encouraged her to start selling her wonderful creation.
During 2015 she made her first order to a friend’s art Gallery in Belgravia, she would scoop the cookie dough and put it into zip lock bags for ease of the cookie; just one for two as she always supported moderation – this was the first sign of being able to portion out the perfect size.
After 2 years of experimenting and trialling with more family and friends, in 2017, Kathryn and her husband Dan decided to show all the current Doughlicious products at the Speciality Fine Food Show where they noticed that there was nothing of this kind in the UK! This show helped gain interest from Whole Foods and Planet Organic. However, Wholefoods were not keen on the packaging; the zip lock bags would not do well stacked on shelves nor for distribution of frozen dough balls. Luckily Ocado soon discovered Doughlicious and did not mind the current packaging as their products are not displayed on shelves, they deliver directly to homes.
The 2018 packaging meant that Doughlicious now delivered to Ocado, Whole foods and Planet Organic from their own factory! At the factory Kathryn had an extremely small team working around the clock to sustain production, led her to create the ‘Dough-chi’. This is premium ice cream wrapped in cookie dough, coated in a soft cookie crumb-gluten free! In 2019 a company in Sweden reached out to launch Dough-chi in Sweden however Kathryn wanted to continue perfecting the Dough-chi recipe so did not continue the partnership and withheld launching Doough•Chi in the UK.
(Insert image of doughlicious dough-chi range with flavour descriptions)
With the production increasing, the factory now reached capacity. The next steps for growth were to take on a bigger space; this took almost a year to renovate. Which they later expanded to 3 buildings!
In the early Summer of 2019, Kathryn was diagnosed with breast cancer. This was very frightening for not only herself but her family who were worried about her well-being as she was determined to continue working throughout chemotherapy (which she did right until the cancer was removed). This was also when COVID-19 hit. The cookie dough launched into Waitrose and work became the needed distraction for Kathryn but she also had the support from families,
friends and staff.
As D2C sales increased so did the graveyard shifts from 7am – 11pm right down to sweeping and cleaning before lock up! This was a time when Kathryn struggled to find staff but the ones that were found are currently still working there today. The struggle increased a more united front and instilled the work ethic and family culture that they have.
Now to 2022 when Doughlicious hit the global radar! They were listed as the top innovation in the frozen snackable sector and received interest from distributors in Belgium, Germany, France, Saudi and the USA. Success continued as they won a grant from Ealing Council which gave the needed funds to launch a new side of the factory where they installed ovens and a packaging line that can flow and wrap cookies for ambient sales.
This year in January, Doughlicious launched in Belgium. The relationahip between Wholefoods and Doughlicious flourished as Wholefoods CEO paid visit to the factory and was supportive in their growth. In April I attended the first ever Wholefoods Pop Up in the Picadilly Store – Wholefoods do not usually have pop stores; this gives Doughlicious the opportunity to share all their products with the public. At the pop-up store, the public can try their new warm super stuffed cookies (inside-out Churro, OG Chocolate Chip, Jaffa Wannabe, and Yo Berry). In May, Doughlicious went live in Switzerland.
Global opportunities continue for Doughlicious as in September they launch in Australia, in October the USA. Doughlicious currently stock in the UK (including Northern Ireland), Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, the USA and soon Saudi Arabia.
This is an astonishing story of a determined and caring mother and entrepreneur. Kathryn is hands on with Doughlicious and does not really have a work schedule – she visits her factory almost 6 days a week to check on not only her production, her staff. It was wonderful to witness that 90% of senior positions are held by women. For information on Doughlicious and their products,head over to their website https://doughlicious.co.uk/
